It felt strange to Jia. The air had smelled of gritty danger until thirty minutes ago. Death loomed in every corner and even after the threat was successfully subdued, her heart hadn’t stopped racing as if it was on fire. Her mind remained wired to a fight or flight response - especially when the last seconds ticked by.

But as soon as Mingshen appeared in the video call, a tiny breath of relief dared to pass through. She didn’t know if he could pull it off or if failure would clasp at him too, nevertheless his presence alone - though miles away - gave her a much needed strength. At the same time, fear gnawed at her heart as well.

The future was uncertain. If everything failed, would Mingshen watch Jia burn away in the most miserable way possible? With her body being shred into smithereens?

As a cop, her heart and mind had been forged into steel long ago.

Duty. Danger. Sacrifice.

These three words were how Jia summed up her life. She didn’t know if she would make it back every day that she stepped out of her house. When a bullet would hit her, when a simple fight would turn too ugly - she had no way to know.

But strangely enough today...Jia hadn’t wanted that. The spirit of courage and fearlessness wavered just a little. A flutter of selfishness had tugged at her heartstrings facing Qiu Dai.

Will this be her end today? Will she never be able to see her sister again? Hug her niece and nephew again? Banter with Huojin again?

And Mingshen...

The time when he covered her back earlier - was it the last time that she would see of him?

When that thought crept into her, an inexplicable ache pounded her chest as if she was walking on a thin rope. Strangely enough, she didn’t want to bid her last farewell so soon. Their friendship had barely taken root, and she slowly came to realize that...

It’s fun being with him, her lashes trembled as a voice echoed within her own mind.

At times he might be unbearable, but there was never a day that didn’t liven up by his charisma. That her tense and rigid shoulders didn’t ease with him being around.

The same way how her she felt at this very moment, her shoulders gradually dropping with a distinct relief popping away the jitters, the edginess clawing away her peace of mind. The uneven drumbeats of his heart echoed in her ears, yet the blood that pumped within him seemed to wrap her with a strange warmth. His palms were firmly locked onto her waist as if him trying to sink in the fact that she was alive in his arms. Yet she felt his fingertips faintly quiver with a tremor. The sound of his instead breaths was so barely audible as if he was trying to learn to breathe all over again.

"I think..."

Jia held her breaths when Mingshen finally uttered his first words after a long silence that seemed to span ages.

"I want to go back to the days when you were locked up in my lab."

Needless to say, her brow twitched. Heavily. Incessantly.

"...Is that really the first thing that comes to your mind?"

"Actually...no," his voice came out a little deeper, a little huskier.

"Thank God."

"First thought was to kiss you senseless."

"..."

I think I now prefer the second line of thought more...

"And I am not kidding."

The manner in which his voice stressed his intentions before she got a chance to strike them down made a gulp swallow down her throat.

"It was i-indeed a stressful situation..." she cleared her throat.

"Stressful is an understatement, Jia."

The whisper of her name sent a jolt of shockwave across her veins, cells, nerves and everything else that flowed within her body. She was used to the nickname Spicy, just like his goofy voice would always sound. But in no way was she ready for his voice to hit the notes of her real name that...hushed and sexy. It rang faintly with an unspeakable warning.

"I-Indeed," she wasn’t quite sure why her voice trembled like that.

"Jia."

"Yes..?"

"Doctors are great at sex, you know?"

Once again, Jia wasn’t quite sure how to frame her response.

"Is that a...stereotype for doctors?"

"I am making one right now. Whatever that will get you in bed with me."

"..."

She slowly began to distance herself. "I think some space is-"

"You dare inch any further away from me, and it will be impossible to predict my next move - even for myself."

Her head pressed back upon his chest quietly and without much fight. Then fell a long silence that made her more nervous than her face-off with Qiu Dai. A long breath escaped her lips.

"Thank you, Mingshen," her sincere voice hummed softly. "I...am falling quite short for words, but really. Thank you. You always help me out whenever I am in a pinch. At Zhang Luqi’s home with the goons, the reunion evening when I was at my lowest and now."

Her arms slid across his back, hugging him back just as tightly as he was. Right where her cheeks lay on his chest, a wave of comfort washed over her.

"Should I say you are a devil in shining armor?" she chuckled.

She looked up, finally meeting his black irises that were staring down at her as if they would gobble her whole. They encompassed a web of complicated emotions that neither shared a beginning nor an end.

"Jia," his tone hit a measured low. "The word fear doesn’t exist in my dictionary. You are always sexy and badass when you prove me wrong, but not today. I would like that word and emotion to never creep into my world. I want it to stay it that way."

Everytime that Jia thought she had come to know the man Yang Mingshen, the devil would prove her just how much she still didn’t quite know about him. It was a gaze she had never come across before. It was a pull she had never quite compelled her before.

"Fear makes us human, Mingshen," she smiled.

"I am not looking to get demoted to being a human."

She laughed, for the first time in this turbulent day that tested all boundaries.

"Being human is a demotion?" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"What’s more elevated than being a devil?"

She hummed. "True that."

"Heeyyyyyy, what’s going on hereeee? An R-rated drama!?" Came a voice full of zest.